


Small Miracles

by Kataclysm22



Series: Inheritance Cycle AUs [4]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Comfort fic, Fluff, Friendship, Micro Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 14:14:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10855674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kataclysm22/pseuds/Kataclysm22
Summary: Murtagh comforts a friend through her stress. For Lmere.





	Small Miracles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lmere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lmere/gifts).



> Hopefully, this will make you feel better, my lovely. Love you. :-*

The wall next to her desk was beginning to look like a very good place to bang her head repeatedly. Maybe then, her brain would begin to function again. All this revision for exams was beginning to wear her thin. Her eyes ached from straining for too long, and her head throbbed from the effort of poring over her notes and textbooks.

“A degree is not worth this much torture,” she whispered to herself, throwing her pencil on top of her notebook in exasperated annoyance.

Suddenly, a soft knocking came at the door. She grunted in response, not wanting to waste any precious energy on yelling. The door cracked open and a familiar face appeared.

“How’s it going?” he asked genuinely, holding a glass of what looked to be orange juice.

“Would you be concerned if I asked you to kill me?” she retorted without an ounce of humor.

He smirked nonetheless and came the rest of the way into the room, leaning against the edge of her desk. “Maybe this’ll help.” He set the cup down on the only clear spot left on her desk.

She picked it up and sniffed suspiciously. _Definitely orange juice._ “If this has pulp in it, I’ll be forced to expel you from the house,” she said with a narrowed gaze.

He placed a hand over his heart and raised the other. “I swear on my honor, I would never insult you so.” He gave her a slight wink as she took a sip and sat back in her chair, abandoning her studies for a moment.

“Murtagh,” she sighed, closing her eyes, “I don’t know how you can be so chipper this close to exams.” They were studying in two different fields, but each of them had enough exams to make a saint curse.

“Well, I find that punching walls is very cathartic.” He paused a moment too long, and she eyed him pointedly. They were renting this house for the semester, and she’d be damned if he was the reason they didn’t get part of their deposit back. He noticed her caustic stare and put his hands up innocently. “Only joking, Em. Promise,” he said. She _harrumphed_ slightly, but went back to her juice without any more fuss.

“But seriously, you should take a break,” Murtagh continued in that concerned way of his. “All the revision in the world won’t help you if you’re dead.”

“Isn’t that a bit dramatic?” Emily replied with a playful tilt of her head.

“Yes, but the look on your face tells me you were just contemplating smashing your head against the wall. Now who’s the dramatic one?” he teased. She gave him a playful tap on the wrist and stifled a giggle.

Emily sighed heavily, surveying the mountains of paper and notes piled up on her desk. Murtagh’s offer was tempting… “Sorry, ‘Tag,” she finally said, “I’ve just got so much to do. Maybe this weekend?”

Murtagh gave her a look of mock disapproval, but conceded nonetheless. “So be it,” he declared in his best imitation of a Shakespearian actor. “But you can at least humor me and get out of that chair for a minute.”

“What for?” she asked suspiciously, placing her juice on the desk. He looked at her in that way that told her not to argue, so, reluctantly, she stood up.

They stood eye-to-eye, though Murtagh liked to boast that he was _half_ an inch taller than her. Emily knew the truth, but she let him hang on to his pride… for now.

Murtagh put his hands on her shoulders and looked her square in the eye. “You work entirely too hard,” he began, “but I want you to know I’m incredibly proud of you. That degree will be worth it, and you won’t even remember all the pain you went through to get it.”

“Doubt it,” she snorted, but smiled at him all the same. He wrapped her in one of his signature bear hugs, squeezing her tight and comforting some of her tension away. She swore his embraces were magical, as they always made her feel instantly better. After an appropriate amount of time, he released her.

“There, that better?”

“Loads,” she admitted. “Thanks for that. Now I really do have to get back to work.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m leaving,” he said playfully, turning back towards her open door. “I’ll be back if you haven’t eaten by seven, you hear me?”

“Yes, _Dad,_ ” she scoffed sarcastically. The click of her door closing enveloped her in silence once more. But it wasn’t nearly as heavy now. Murtagh could always lift her spirits; it was one of the things she loved most about him. Her eyes roamed over the paper in front of her, but she found the information to come a little easier now.

It was a miracle what one hug could do.


End file.
